ABC Labels Pro-Family Christian Organization a Hate Group

ABC News labeled Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ private talk on religious freedom at an event set up by the Alliance Defending Freedom as an address to a hate group.

The ADF, one of the nation’s most respected religious liberty law firms, held a closed doors event Tuesday evening at the Ritz-Carlton in Dana Point, California, at which Sessions was the keynote speaker. ABC News only reported on it two days ago. But it was the way they went about it that is so concerning.

The report, titled “Jeff Sessions addresses ‘anti-LGBT hate group,’ but DOJ won’t release his remarks,” was designed purposefully to lead readers to assume that something untoward was taking place at the clandestine meeting, and that America’s top law enforcement agent was participating in and or/even promoting hate himself.

Todd Starnes initially broke the story, of ABC News reporters Pete Madden and Erin Galloway and their scathing report on the speech

Their initial paragraph opens:

Attorney General Jeff Sessions delivered a speech to an alleged hate group at an event closed to reporters on Tuesday night, but the Department of Justice is refusing to reveal what he said.

And why would ABC News decide to brand ADF a hate group, and imply that Sessions speech was something that they wanted to remain hidden? It is a wonder, but the answer almost certainly lies with the news organization and its reporters own bias rather than anything that actually occurred—if you want to read the “secret” words the Attorney General delivered to the group, you can do so here.

The first thing these reporters got wrong was the use of the label. ADF is the furthest thing from a hate group. What they are is is a law firm that has a stellar record of defending religious liberty before the Supreme Court – seven victories at the high court in the last seven years.

There defense of Christians religious beliefs, and in particular, their defense of Christian opposition to same-sex marriage, and the trans-gender bathroom movement, have led highly-partisan groups like the Southern Poverty Law Center to assign them the label of hate-group.

The Southern Poverty Law Center accuses ADF of

supporting the recriminalization of homosexuality abroad, ending same-sex marriage and generally making life as difficult as possible for LGBT communities in the U.S..

They’ve also laid the charge of “hate group” at the Family Research Council and the American Family Association – both highly respected religious organizations.

It’s one thing for an opposition organization to call its opponents “hate groups” to gin up support for their own work, it is quite another thing, for so-called “objective” journalists to do the same.

This is what has ADF demanding and apology and retraction from ABC News, with spokesperson Kerri Kupec excoriating them for their blatant bias in a statement,

ABC News has committed journalistic malpractice. For ABC News to essentially cut and paste false charges against Alliance Defending Freedom by a radically left-wing, violence-inciting organization like Southern Poverty Law Center is a discredit to ABC News and to the profession.

Americans’ trust in media is cratering, and the blatant bias and lack of professionalism that ABC attempted to pass off as news can only serve to confirm and intensify that distrust.

This is latest stunt by ABC News is as clear a sign as any that the news media is not interested in actually disseminating the “news,” but rather has its own agenda, and that includes labeling those who hold Christian values of family as hate groups.

Joseph was born and raised in Tucson, AZ. He received a Master's in U.S. history, with an emphasis on American constitutionalism from the UA, with a minor in Aerospace Mechanical Engineering. He took a job right out of college as a financial advisor, then switched career paths to teaching History at Pima Community College, while tutoring mathematics on the side. He also writes op-eds for the Arizona Daily Star, Tucson's largest newspaper, and has recently begun a new, live, calling radio show Common Sense heard every Saturday at 1 p.m. on 1030 AM KVOI, The Voice. He has a passion for politics and debate, believing that, we the people, must converse with each other about ideas and become engaged in the political formative process, as opposed to simply reacting to what government does. His ideological emphasis, in which he believes everyone can find common ground, is natural rights philosophy.